Kit-Cat
by The Vampire Avatar
Summary: Dr. Equius Zahhak had no experience with kids. He had taken care of the trolls when they come in, sure, but he never had to raise anything. But suddenly, he must take care of a troll egg that was abandoned. This leads to misadventures and so many Kit-Kat wrappers. It leads to something that he never considered: him being in a pale quadrant with a troll. Takes place in UFUT verse.
1. Chapter 1

Hey y'all. So the takes place in the UFUT verse by Coldhope. It's over on ao3 if you wanna read it, you'll understand this a lot better if you do. It explains whats going on in the story if you wanna try and get away with it though.

* * *

Dave Strider was suppose to be getting only a few things from the store. It consists of only the usual: eggs, cheese, apple juice, milk, soda, cereal, apple juice, bread and some apple juice. Of course, that was the original plan. No biggie, get into the store, buy the needed material and leave. Cronus was accompanying him as the official list checker, a very important job in the need for shopping.

He had been betrayed by his brother, Dirk, into going and doing this. He didn't want to. No, he was in the middle of replying to the emails that had filled his entire box. Bro had been guilt tripping him that he had gone the last two times and how he had to just give Sollux and Karkat a bath- it was his turn for a chore.

See, Dave lived with Bro in their apartment in a distinguished location. Wasn't that bad of a place, nice people. But about a year or so ago, Dave had rescued a small troll from a box on the side of unwanted. The mutant troll turned out to be sick, so they took him to the vet- Dr. Z. Then after that, he found Sollux, a yellow blood from an abused home. Eventually they gained his trust and the two trolls lived with them. Then, just to add to their cake, he had found Cronus. More or less…anyway, the three lived with him and Bro and they started an organization that saved trolls. After all, they're people too.

Now, teamed up with other troll defenders, Dave and his friends help out trolls as much as they can. They even have their own network going. Including a facebook page with cute ass pictures of the trolls.

So, grudgingly, he and Cronus had to go to the store to get list of goods. They took the car and left the other three back at home. Everything was cool so far; wasn't hard to find a parking spot, people were actually bearable, not too long of lines, they made it out in a shocking short amount of time. Cronus didn't even get smacked when he had hit on a pair of girls from the local college. All in all, so far, so good.

It was the way home when came the trouble. They were just cruisin', no biggie, radio was jammin', everything was great. Cronus had started a couple conversations, and they were going well until he stopped talking and leaned out the window. Literally, half his body was out the window. Dave cursed and was about to scream at him to get his ass back into the car, but then Dave saw what made Cronus haywire.

On the side of the road was an small oval, green egg. It was lying in some watery leaves in the gutter. Jeez, it was really small. Actually, it wouldn't have even caught Dave's attention, but with Cronus in the car, it was hard to miss. Dave pulled over to the side with the egg and watched as Cronus had gotten back into the car and struggled to get off the seatbelt.

The car had barely even stopped and Cronus had already shot out and began running to the egg. Dave watched him rip off his shirt and bend down over the egg. He picked the green egg and wrapped it in his shirt. He got up gently and carried it over to the car, got in, and demanded they go see Dr. Z immediately. When Dave asked why, Cronus gave the best excuse he possibly could've. "It's a troll egg."

From what Dave knew, troll eggs are suppose to be very well cared for. There's a specific and precise temperature they need to be kept in. They have to be in a safe place too, somewhere they wouldn't move around too much. Otherwise it might just slowly kill them. Then once they actually hatch, they have to be taken more care of. Grubs aren't easy to be taken care of-not in the long run. Watching them, feeding them, the works. It's like a pet. But, if you know a vet who loves trolls...it might be a little easier.

However, after a while they'll go into the stage of actually turning into a troll. It takes roughly six weeks and once they're out it'll be exactly like taking care of a baby. Their grub legs go into their side (for whatever reason, Dave didn't know) and are suppose to be sensitive. Now they're like a human toddler with a tail and horns, sometimes with gills, sometimes with powers, sometimes with fangs, it all just depends.

They're going to imprint however, so it's important for the first few months that they're in a good, safe, happy, environment. Especially with somebody with the same qualities and are able to take care of them for a good while. Then after the first couple of months, they'll be able to go around other people. Some will be shy, others will bound over to new people to explore them. Again, it all depends. They won't know any better- after all they're only a few months old. No matter what their reaction, it's important to be careful with them.

To sum it all up: troll babies are hella ton of work.

Finally, after it seemed forever with Cronus fussing over the egg, Dave pulled up to the infamous clinic. Cronus immediately got out of the car and sprinted up the steps. Strider slowly got out of the car-amazed at how intense he was about the egg. He understood that trolls were hella important- they were people after all- but he never imagined Cronus could be this worked up after something like this.

After parking the car and locking it, he soon jogged up the steps too and opened the door. He was confused, but it seemed that Cronus was already on it. He was talking to Feferi about all of this and she was just nodding, expecting the egg as well. See, Feferi and Jade worked for Equius Zahhak at the vet clinic. They all were a huge help with everything.

Dave stepped up and tried to understand what all they were trying to say.

"...don't know how long it wvas out. I just saw it and went after it." Cronus was shooting out words faster than Dave had imagined a gun shooting bullets.

"I know, it's okay-" Feferi tried to consult him, she too, was examining the egg carefully. Yet, something caught Dave's eye that the other two might not have seen.

"There's a crack in it."

Near one of the ends of the egg, there was a crack. It was barely noticeable and probably didn't have much effect on the troll inside. It wasn't even that big, just an inch or so. It seemed to be important though because Cronus and Feferi shared a worried glance.

He soon began to feel worried himself. He was starting to feel the same way about Karkat, Sollux, and even Cronus. In other words, the young Strider wasn't about to let anything happen to it.

Dr. Z must've been with a patient because Feferi carefully took the little egg from Cronus and cooed at it. "Poor little trolly…" She nervously bit her lip, bouncing on her feet. "Stay right here, I'll get a blanket."

She handed the egg delicately back to Cronus and he nervously inspected the crack. "Shit," he cursed. "That'll hurt the little guy for sure."

"It's just a crack, man. I think it happens all the time with chicks and stuff, what's so bad about it?"

Cronus shook his head and groaned. "You don't get it Dave," he snapped his head to him and shook it slowly. "Troll egg shells are really thin. It might've caused the little guy to be scratched before it even got the chance to come out into the world."

Dave now saw why Cronus was so upset about all of this. Before he could fully talk to Cronus about this, Feferi and Dr. Z came out. A patient followed him with a small chihuahua in her arms. She was one of those women where you could tell she was handed everything on a gold plate with no question. Fake boobs, fake lips, fake nose, even fake jewelry. Yeesh."You're kidding me, right? A stupid egg over my precious Bittzy?! What's the matter with you?!" Ah. Doc must've ditched her when he heard about what they had instead.

Feferi handed the blanket over to Cronus, who wasted no time in wrapping the egg up. But Dr. Z didn't look too thrilled. His jaw muscles tightened and he turned and glared at the woman. "Ms. I can assure you, I can surely check up on Bitty when I get a chance, if-"

"Let me get this straight. I wait in here for ten minutes with my poor darling, Bittzy, and now you want to reschedule for a troll?!" The lady bitched at him.

Zahhak snapped his head towards the lady and shook his head. "I will get to you as soon as I can, miss, but until then I have a bigger emergency than just Bittzy's shots."

The bitch seethed and literally stomped her foot. "For-get it! I'm taking my baby elsewhere." She stormed out of there with the sound of her heels clicking following her out.

The four of them stood their with shocked and puzzled expressions on their faces. "She seemed like a bitch anyw-" Dave started, but the expression on his face made him reconsider his choice of words for the woman. "She wasn't cool."  
Dr. Zahhak rolled his eyes and looked at the troll egg. "Where was it precisely?"

"Found it on the side of the road."

"It was in wet leaves, I thought it was gonna go into the gutter." Cronus muttered, shaking his head. "Do you think it's still alive?"

He handed the bundle over to Zahhak and he carefully examined it. "The olive blood might've taken damage from the crack. We should probably examine it closer to be sure though."

"How can you tell the blood color?" Dave asked. All he saw was a gree- oh.

Feferi smiled and giggled while Zahhak adopted a small smirk. "The same pigments in the troll's blood and tissue systems are somewhat expressed into the shell color. It helps identifying what the troll will need later in life."

"And tells which one if more valuable," Cronus rubbed his fingers together. "Olive bloods are okay, but not very much on the scale. Still lowbloods."

Zahhak shook his head. "It'll still be higher than Sollux and Karkat. Besides, every troll is valuable, no matter the blood color, Cronus."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, I know." He leaned back on the wall and ran his hand through his greasy hair. "So is it going to be okay?"

Dave watched Zahhak shrug his muscle bound shoulders and look at the egg in concern. "I have no idea. I want to keep it close though, keep an eye on it. Ms. Peixes, would you mind getting me an electric blanket? We need to keep it warm."

Feferi nodded and jogged to the other room while Dr. Z continued to examine it. His stone face was on, meaning that he was deep into thought. Dave and Cronus had both seen it numerous times, especially when the latter was one sick. The man could hide his feelings and thoughts pretty damn well and it was even harder to read him when he was wearing his shades.

"I'll have to make a call about this to an associate of mine," he muttered. "I don't think we'd be able to provide it the care that it requires." He glanced up to the other two standing there as if he just noticed them. "Thank you for bringing it here. Later I'll call you and let you know how it's doing."

Dave nodded and turned to Cronus. "Hey, man. I'd think we'd better get home. Dr. Z and Fef got this."

Cronus watched the egg for a couple more seconds before nodding."Yeah, I guess."

Dave nodded at the vet and practically shoved Cronus out of there. Once they were actually on the way home, Dave spoke up for the first time since they got back into the car. "Dude, what's your deal? You're rarely like this."

Cronus just shrugged and continued to stare out the window. It was pretty rainy today, and the forecasts say that it's not going to let up anytime soon. It was unsaid but agreed that they were both glad they had found it before the rain started. The egg was already pretty cold when they had found it.

Dave sighed and decided not to push the troll anymore and had left the car in an awkward silence. When he finally parked the car he got out and took ahold of most of the bags. He had always thought of more than one trips being for the weak (most of the time he made three). He turned to Cronus, who was still sitting in the car, and sighed.

He shut the door and started to walk up to the elevator. He pushed the up button and waited with the groceries in hand. They weren't really heavy, but the damn plastic was starting to irritate his skin. Why they made the bags with the handles the thinnest, nobody knew, but it sure was stupid.

"Do you think it'll be okay?"

Dave jumped a bit and turned his head to see Cronus right behind him. He was almost as quiet as Bro usually was and it was starting to creep him out. But, after a quick second of regaining his cool, he nodded. "Of course, man. Dr. Z has it, there is no way he'd let anything happen to it."

The pair once again was emerged in silence as the elevator dinged and opened their doors. "Dude, if you're seriously worried about it, we can go back and see it whenever you want. Maybe we can even take Karkat and Sollux."

Shrug.

Dave sighed, and walked out of the elevator on their floor. "Dude, you gotta work with me a little bit, okay?" He put down the bags of groceries on the floor and dug out his keys. "I know you're worried, I am too," he put the key into the lock and turned, "but it'll be okay."

As soon as he pushed the door in, Karkat came running around the corner and jumped onto the couch, smiling at them. "Did you get the cookies?"

Shit. Dave nearly facepalmed. He knew he was forgetting something.

"Sorry, little man, I didn't. But we can get some later, okay?"

Karkat seemed to pout a little but lightened up at the idea of going later. "Okay!"

"Where's Bro?"

"With Sollux." Karkat dismissed him and flopped down on the couch.

"Well, where's Sollux?"

"He's in his room," Karkat looked over at Ampora and waved. Cronus waved back and surprisingly went to sit with him.

With a grunt, Dave set the groceries down in the kitchen and set out to find him. "Yo, bro! We need to tell you something."

"What's up?"

For the second time in the past five minutes, Dave nearly jumped out of his skin. He sharply turned around and found his brother right behind him. "Don't do that!"

Bro smirked and ruffed up Dave's hair. "Don't know what you're talking about, man."

Dave grabbed his arms and threw them back to their owner. "We have some serious troll business, Bro."

All play was immediately set aside and Bro practically came to attention. Whenever it came to troll business, or any subject about it, Bro was always serious. He, or anybody else in their circle of friends, didn't mess around when it came to that subject. "What's up?"

"We found a troll's egg."

Bro's eyebrows shot up and he gaped for a second from shock. "Seriously? Did you keep it or-"

Dave gave him a look and shook his head. "We gave it to Dr. Z to look at."

"Tell me everything that happened."

After explaining everything to him, the parts he didn't really get coming from Cronus, and relaying what Dr. Z had said, Bro, Dave, Cronus, and Karkat were sitting at the table trying to be patient and wait for the phone call from Dr. Z.  
"Can we see the egg?" Karkat spoke up.

Dave and Bro looked at each other and shrugged. "Sure, Karkles. We can go see it if Dr. Z says it's okay."

"Sollux and Mister Purple come too?"

"Sure, little man, just wait for Dr. Z to call."

As if on cue, the phone rang and Bro immediately reached out and grabbed it. "Hey, Doc." A long pause. "What? Why?" Another pause, this one shorter. "But you don't have the equipment for it." Bro took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. You almost gape at the sight, he rarely ever did that, if rare covered never.

"Well, then who's going to take care of it?"

At this, everybody's attention spiked and all ears, minus the small ones, strained to hear the other line.

"We can talk about it. Can the kids come see it? Karkat wants to see it and Cronus is-" The shortest pause. "Yeah, that's fine. Alright. Talk to you soon." He hung up and looked at Dave with exhausted eyes. "You wanna go see the egg now or wait until the morning?"


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Dave dragged himself out of bed. The terrible duo didn't want to sleep, they wanted to see the egg. Even after he promised them that they could see it in the morning, they kept whining about it. Something about it hatching before they could see it.

"You guys were eggs before too, what makes this one any different?" Dave asked the next morning over pancakes. He thought that having eggs would be a tad too ironic, and well, just douchey.

"Because this one is a baby!" Karkat slammed his tiny fist down on the table.

"Definitely proves your point, little man." He scooped up some pieces and dunked them into the syrup.

Bro was on the internet, trying to find any information they could find about troll eggs. Granted, they did have Dr. Z on their side, which made it hella ton easier. But in casa de Strider, they knew about as much as nothing. Not only that, but it was cracked.

Cronus was silently drinking a cup of coffee at the end of the table. He was behaving odd about this entire thing. Sollux was glaring at him somewhat, but that was only because he was concerned that Cronus was going to hog the egg today. Oh, speaking of-

"Hey, guys. Today, we can't touch the egg, okay?"

Bro briefly glanced up, having his poker face on full effect, but slightly nodded anyway. "Yeah, guys. The egg's already cracked."

Sollux and Karkat adopted shocked faces and looked at each other. It was like looking into a mirror only with different blood, different horns, different well...okay, screw that simile.

"But we wanted to hold it!" Sollux groaned, putting down his fork and sloping down into the chair. Karkat nodded and took out a folded -to the extreme care, by the looks- piece of paper and handed it to Dave.

Dave eyed him carefully and opened it. All eyes were on him and the paper, even Cronus had taken interest in it and was watching it. Dave shrugged and just as carefully unfold it and almost awww out loud. It had seemed that the two had worked on drawing an egg together and had even put in the little details. Meaning, as such, putting themselves in the picture.

It was actually pretty adorable. But Karkat jumped up on the table and snatched it out of his hands and ran back to wherever they had colored it. He felt himself smile a bit and tilted his head. It was kinda nice to see them so happy about something like this.

Bro looked up at you and smiled. "Should we put it on the fridge too, mommy?"  
Instant poker face time. Daves gave him the bird and continued eating the pancakes. He woke up at five in the AM today and he was going to finish the pancakes if it was the last thing he would ever do.

Karkles coming running back into the room with the newly improved picture. He hands it back to Dave and races back to Sollux. "I fixed it!" He grins at him.

Dave looks back down at it and resists the urge to laugh. When Bro had said the egg was cracked, Karkat took it way too seriously and had drawn black lines all over it in an attempt to crack it. He let himself smirk this time, screw Bro Strider and his teasings, and handed it back to Karkat. "Well, that's much better. Are you gonna put it up on the fridge?"

He shook his head and bounced in his chair. "Doctor Zack!"

Dave and Bro share a look and glanced back to Karkat. He was already having Sollux put in more lines with his black crayon so their work would be evenly shared.

Cronus gets up and finished the coffee before putting it in the sink. "Can we just go already?" he muttered. "I bet they," he pointed to the two drawing more cracks (it could look like an egg if you squinted at it). "Want to see the thing too."

The two looked up and nodded.

Bro got up and shut his laptop. "Alright, alright. We'll leave in ten. Anybody lagging will be walking."

The car ride here was so much busier than it should have taken. Traffic wasn't bad, no, and you had only had hit like three red lights all the way there. It had only taken twenty minutes to get there.

No, what had taken up so much time was Sollux and Karkat coming up with names for the egg. They even had a bet if it were going to be a chick or would it have a dick, just not in those words. Karkat was head set on it being a girl and Sollux was convinced it was a boy. When they were questioned why, Karkat said that green spoke to him as a fun color, and that he would have fun with a little sister. Sollux had said that he wanted a little brother and that green was a boy color anyway, because Jake wore it all the time.

Bro and Dave once again smiled in their Strider way. They had wanted a little sibling. That was another issue that you guys had to talk to Dr. Z about. When he had called last night, he had explained to Bro that the Hatchery that usually accepted eggs wouldn't accept this one. Apparently, they told him that the egg wouldn't have survive over the night due to where they had found it. Nobody was even sure if the crack had made the troll sick or not. Which had made it even more displeasing for the Hatchery.

It had ticked all three of them off when they found out. Dave, Cronus, and Bro were somewhat taken to the egg. Cronus had even explained why he was so obsessed with it when they were waiting for the two to make sure they had all the toys they wanted to bring with to play with it (you made the limit one for each troll). Apparently, when he was only like ten, he had found a jade egg and it had died in the factory. He had tried to keep it safe, but the scientists found out about it and well...he didn't go into detail.

But, as we all know, Dr. Zahhak would have never let that happen. Dave was fairly sure that Zahhak had spent all night with it, just to make sure that it wouldn't just drop dead. Speaking of the infamous clinic vet, here they were at said clinic the vet worked at.

"His name isn't going to be Grape! Grapes are purple!" Sollux shook his head at the ridiculous name.

"She can be a green grape!" Karkat argued. "Plus, what name did you have for her?"

"His name is going to be Oliver." He said matter-of-factly. "It even has the color in the name."

"Alright, alright, enough," Bro interviened. "Let's just see what gender the troll is before we even decide on the name."

That seemed to please them enough and they got out of the car in one piece. Cronus didn't even say a word to suppress them, which almost left Dave and Bro speechless for a first. Instead he had popped in a cigarette and lit it up. Bro glared at him, but Dave shook his head before he could say anything.

"Hey, Cronus," Dave called at him when he was by the door. Zahhak had yelled at him one too many times about his smoking habits in the clinic to make him reconsider even thinking about it. The violetblood turned to him with an eyebrow raised. "Meet us inside when you're ready."

Nodnodnod.

Dave followed the others inside and Feferi was already talking to the small ones about things the Striders covered beforehand. Needless to say, they were super glad for a review. "Did Dave tell you to be super super careful being with it?"

They two nodded enthusiastically and hugged their toys closer to their chests.

"Did Bro tell you that it has a crack and that you need to make sure not to touch it?"

More enthusiastic nods and grins.

"Can you tell me why?"

"Because," Sollux spoke up. "It might crack it more."

She smiled sweetly and nodded. "Exactly right." Feferi turned and waved her hand to sign for them to follow her. "Equius has taken quite good care of it. If you ask me, I think he has puppy love."

"Puppy love?" Dave asked. Whatever the hell 'puppy love' is, he never thought that Zahhak could catch it.

"The trouble with working at any place that involves animals is that you get attached to them sometimes. I fell in love with this adorable cat once," She smiled sweetly at the memory. "But Equius usually keeps that stone face. I haven't seen him ever attached to anything before."

This comes to a surprise to all of them. That strong ass, straight faced, vocabulary addict, vet has become attached to something? That egg must've been laid by Jesus Christ Himself or something.

She leads the four into a backroom where the egg is resting on a stand under a heat lamp and surrounded by blankets. Feferi lets them all in before closing the door behind them. "We don't know when it's going to hatch, but Equius says it'll be soon."

"Is it a boy or a girl?" Sollux says, eyes wide on the never before seen object on the table.

"We don't know that yet either. Guess we're going to have to find out soon though, huh?"

The door opened behind her and in came the vet. He nodded at all of them silently and looked over at the two examining it intensely. "Are you finding anything interesting?"

Karkat turned around and bounced up and down. "It's an egg! It's an egg!" He cried. It was the most important thing of the day happening in the world. Zahhak just nodded with a small smirk and watched the egg carefully.

Seeming to remember what one of the things was so important to bring, Sollux took out the picture from his pocket and tugged on Zahhak's pant leg. The big vet turned to look down and Sollux gave him the folded paper.

Zahhak took it from him and unfolded it with a bemused, yet confused look on his face. "What's this?"

Karkat and Sollux shared a smile and anxiously waited for Dr. Z to open it up. When he did he stopped and blinked once, twice, three times before glancing at the two. "Is this the egg?"

"Uh, huh!" Karkat and Sollux simultaneously announced.

"It has a bunch of cracks, the egg only has-" He started to correct them but looked up to see Bro and Dave standing behinding them shaking their head furiously. "Cracks. Just...like the egg, huh?"

"Yup! Do you like it?"

Zahhak studied the drawing a bit more and looked back up to the others. "It's very well drawn. Which one of you drew it?"

They both raised their hands and Zahhak smiled at them both somewhat awkwardly. "Well, it's very nice. Would you mind if I hang it up on the wall back here?"

While he did that, Feferi, Bro and Dave watched the kids' faces brighten up and they followed him with their eyes to the wall with schedules posted and important notes. It was a pretty full bulletin board, but he somehow made room for the picture.

The kids high fived each other and raced back to the table with the egg on it. Zahhak watched them carefully to make sure they didn't accidentally break it, but once he declared them in the okay, he turned to the three adults and nodded to the hallway.

Bro must've understood what he was asking because he got up off the wall he was leaving on and went into the hallway. Dave shrugged and did the Strider thing: just do whatever Bro does and you'll be okay.

Feferi waved to the kids and told them to behave and followed the rest out. "We'll be back in a bit, be careful, okay?"

Cronus had been waiting out in the hall already when the four went out. He paled a little bit when he saw Dr. Z, but relaxed when he noticed the vet hadn't noticed him smoking in the lot. "Hey, chief. How's the egg?"

"It's doing well, I think. The egg was close to freezing when you brought it here, but we put it under the lamp." Zahhak informed him. "We still have a problem with it, though.

"The Hatchery I called won't accept the egg. They think it's going to die or it'll infect the others there."

"How would it infect the others?" Dave asked bravely. "It hasn't had a chance to get sick."

Zahhak sigh and rolled back his shoulders, causing the muscles to roll like a wheel was under them. He looked exhausted. Did he stay up all night with the egg? Dave knew that they had a couch here to crash on if need be, but he didn't think Zahhak would ever use it.

"The crack in the egg lets in bacteria. I will have to run some tests on the grub when it's hatched to make sure it's okay, but until then I don't know how healthy it'll be." He stopped for a moment and his eyes flickered to Cronus. "I'm afraid that the grub might also be effected by the crack as well. It depends on when it received it, and what stage it was in, but it looks like it's been there for a while."

Cronus bit his lip and Dave could see his resistance to straight up pull out a cigarette and smoke right in front of Dr. Z- a death sentence resistance.

"So where is it going to go when it hatches?" Bro asked. He had crossed his arms and by the way his eyebrows had drawn together, Dave could tell he was pretty worried about it.

Zahhak shook his head and fixed his glasses. "I don't want you to take any more trolls in. Three is enough for the Strider household. Besides, a grub will imprint. We need a less full residence."

"What about Jade?" Dave pointed out. "She and her dog live together alone, right?"

Zahhak nodded. "Yes, perfect. A new chewtoy for the dog."

Dave sighed and nodded- the dog was cute and everything but he seriously thought that there would be a chewing Olympics in the near future. Dave had lost a pair of shades from Bec at one point, which was still not forgiven.

Feferi suddenly jumped up and clapped her hands together in glee. Her smile reached her ears and was producing a squeal. All eyes were on her as she pulled out her phone and pretended to take a picture. "What if we film it hatching and put it on our website? We could say that we need a good home for it!"

Now that was an idea. Not only would it help the website by adding more 'awww' factor, but not many people have ever seen a troll hatch. It'd make a good video, for sure.

Zahhak nodded, seeming to agree with his future girlfriend. Dave and Jade were taking bets on when and who will ask the other out. His friend, Andrew Jackson, said Feferi would be asking Zahhak within the next two weeks.

All seemed to agree with the idea by the nods or the approving one word answers. Cronus shook his head and leaned up against the wall. "With the two half pints in there, they'll be screaming about who's right."

Zahhak scrunched his eyebrows up in confusion and looked at Feferi, who was somewhat happy to be confused. "Pardon?"

Bro sighed under his breathe and shrugged. He had a smirk on his face and it was so un-Striderly that Dave almost broke his poker face.

"They're having bets on the gender. If it's a girl, the name will be Grape. If it's a boy it'll be Oliver."

Cronus shook his head again and gently hot his head on the wall. "We aren't naming it those stupid ass names. It's not a pet, it's a grub."

Feferi shrugged. "It's still fun for them to try and guess what it's like." She eyed Zahhak down and smirked. "Maybe Equius could take it home."

He straightened and blushed. "N..no. I couldn't. I wouldn't be very good to imprint on for six months-"

"Bullshit." Bro cut him off and stood straighter. "With the amount of vocabulary you spit out, I bet that it'll be accepted to fucking Hardvard when it's a year old."

He didn't have a response to it. He cleared his throat and fixed his already fine glasses. It was pretty cute how he had puppy love for it. It was obvious that he liked the egg and that he wanted it. And by the look of Feferi, she knew it too.

Before anybody could respond further, Karkat and Sollux started shouting loudly. With a confused looked, Bro opened to door (him being the closest to it) to find them shouting at each other.

When the door opened the two snapped over to the doorway and they immediately started blaming each other and pointing at each other. As if that wasn't worrying enough, what they were shouting brought ice to everybody's blood.

"HE BROKE IT!" Karkat gasped in a tattle tail  
voice.

"DID NOT! I DIDNT EVEN TOUCH IT!" Sollux defended himself.

Zahhak and Cronus shoved their way through them into the room quickly and quickly went straight to the egg. Said object was moving slightly and more cracks had spread out around it. With a relieved sigh and an excited skip in his voice, Zahhak turned to the others in the doorway. "Feferi, your phone."

She gasped for a minute and rushed over. Bro must've called the two over to them because they groaned and trudged over there. Karkat looked at Dave and sniffed. "Didn't break it."

Dave picked him up and shook his head. "No way, Karkles. It's hatching."

Their faces lit up like a Christmas tree and they turned back to the egg. He quickly balanced Karkat on his hip and walked over to the egg.

The olive blood was starting to make progress. It had already gotten a tiny piece off of it. It was towards the top where the origins crack was.

Feferi was 'awww'ing and holding the phone on the table so it would get a good view and wouldn't shake. Zahhak, surprisingly, was cooing to it, giving encouraging words to it.

It had reminded Dave of Jurassic Park. The scientist (a vet was counted as a scientist, right?) had an egg in a lab and was excited to see it hatch. He had guests in the lab that were equally eager to see it. And hey, they even had two kids.

Tiny black legs started to make their appearance into the world as the pushed their way out first. In the beginning, it was just the first leg that came out, but then it was the second and the third and wow it was making progress. At one point the entire egg fell on it's side and the little eggs scrambled around.

It broke the rest of the egg off from underneath it and was able to crawl around blindly. Not because they've got blurry vision for a bit, but because the top half of the egg was still covering all of the upper body. The egg reached down to it's chin.

It 'ran' up to Zahhak's arm and smashed into it. He chuckled lightly and gently peeled off the shell covering it. The grub blinked and squeaked.

But as soon as Zahhak had taken off the egg shell, he lost his smile and Dave guessed his vet mode kicked in because it's lip was.. In the middle it had been drawn up. It had a cleft lip. It's head must've been where the crack was and the lip had been effected, apparently.

Cronus stepped back and cursed quietly. He had been afraid that something like this would happen, but given that many things worse could've happened, a cleft lip wasn't that bad. Plus, he turned back, it was pretty cute.

Zahhak reached his huge hand over to the small body, only about a foot from nose to tail, and gently rubbed her hair. The damned thing purred and rubbed into his hand. When he tried to pull his hand back, it tried to follow where it thought it was going. Zahhak quickly put his hand back to petting it and looked up at Feferi and smiled softly.

She smiled back and leaned over to the others and whispered, "Puppy love."


	3. Chapter 3

After a couple minutes of drooling over the grub, Equius picked it up and took it over to the counter. Tools and other needed things were already waiting there for the grub.

It squirmed a bit in his hands, but after he gently rubbed it's hair a bit more it calmed down enough for him to set it down on the weight scale. After a second or two of reading it he jotted down some notes on a nearby chart on a fancy clipboard. It looked like he had already had started a medical record for the thing. He was doing a really good job of keeping an eye on it too. Every time it squirmed around he would gently pick it up and put it back in place.

Apparently Dave wasn't the only one who was watching. Sollux and Karkat were owl eyed and itching to see it again, the two of them too short to see it properly anymore over the counter. Bro was leaning on the wall with a smirk being shown on his face freely. (Which was starting to creep Dave out.) Cronus was practically breathing down Zahhak's neck with how close he was next to the vet. The only one who wasn't watching was Feferi, who was on her phone unleashing the new video onto unsuspecting subscribers.

"Ms. Feferi," Zahhak called over his shoulder-somewhat professionally. "Could you get Ms. Harley for me? I need her assistance to get a blood sample. Maybe we could even figure out what gender this grub is."

Fef nodded and got up to go get Jade. Equius was somewhat blushing as he watched her move out of the room. She had noticed this and sent him a wink, which had effectively added to the blushing. However, he wasn't the only one watching her move out. When the grub saw the person with colorful clothing moving around (especially her neon skirt swishing around on the floor) it tried to follow/pounce on the colorful clothing and almost fell off the counter. Dr. Z didn't even notice it falling until it squeaked when Cronus caught her mid fall.

Everybody watched as Cronus del-icate-ly stood up with the grub in his arms. He nodded at Dr. Z and gentle pet the hair on the grub like he had done earlier. "I gotcha, Chief."

Zahhak blushed out of embarrassment for not even noticing what the grub was doing, let alone that it would've been hurt on his watch. He turned to Cronus and nodded a thanks and turned to fiddle with a machine on the wall. His Easter Island face was on and everybody could tell not to mess with him any time soon.

Feferi came back into the room a few minutes later with Jade, who was throughly disappointed that she wasn't informed the grub was hatching. Feferi must've shown her the video to make her feel a bit better, because she was smiling brightly when she ran into the room. Cronus had even taken a step back when Jade squealed and jumped over, "It's so cute!"

"Ms. Harley, please!" Zahhak snapped as he slammed down his hands on the counter, which had effectively startling everybody. "This grub needs to be checked out and I have no time for your girlish and immature acts."

Jade nodded, suddenly very somber and obviously hurt. "Of course. Sorry."

He said nothing the next ten minutes. The grub was a tad hesitant to be around his massive hands now that they slammed on the counter so harshly. After a bit, it warmed up to him again but he didn't even react to the cute acts it had displayed for him.

Actually, when the grub licked his hand and rubbed her head into it, he gently pushed it away.

The only thing he muttered before he left was that the grub was a girl. After that he slammed the door and it was hard not to hear his heavy footsteps retreating to his office.

"What the hell happened to puppy love?" Feferi turned to the others. "He doesn't seem to be very excited about the grub anymore."

"He let her fall off the counter," Cronus replied. "I caught her, but he must've felt bad."

"'Felt bad' is the wrong term to use," Bro spoke up from his wall.

Jade nodded firmly in agreement.

Feferi groaned and pulled out her phone again. "Guess we'll start looking for people to take her in..."

Karkat looked at Dave in shock and grabbed onto his shirt with iron fists. "She going away?!"

"That's right, little dude." Dave ruffled his hair with a sigh. "I guess Zahhak doesn't want her after all."

Karkat let go of his shirt and wondered under the table. He sat himself down and put his head under his arms. Sollux was watching you with a glint of sadness in his mismatched eyes and sighed to himself. He practically deflated himself as if he were a pump up troll. He went over to Karkat and sat next to him in defeat.

Cronus's eyes flashed dangerously and picked her up off the table. The sea dweller brought her closer to his chest and shook his head firmly. "No."

"Cronus," Bro stood up and went over to him. "We can't keep-" Cronus backed up and bared his teeth when Bro got near. He even dropped his head so his horns were pointing slightly at the approaching human.

Bro stepped back and tensed. He was quickly on edge and careful. His hands clenched at his side and he took a deep inhale through his nose. "Ampora. We cannot keep the grub. Do you even know how to take care of one?"

Cronus said nothing.

The grub started to struggle in his arms and he relaxed his grip on her slightly. She was now free to roam around his arms and was enjoying it apparently. She went up to one of his fingers and started to gently bite on his thumb.

Cronus relaxed completely and looked at her as if he was the one who had puppy love. He watched her affectionately and pet her hair with two of his fingers. She started purring and seemed to curl in on herself, relaxing against his chest.

He looked up at all the adults in the room with pleading eyes. "Please. I can't risk her endin' up some place bad."

It was a full minute of silence, minus the grub making sounds, before anybody did anything. Feferi and Jade exchanged glances and sighed in defeat. They seemed to share te same idea because they turned to Cronus and spoke softly. "We'll go talk to him now."

Cronus had seemed so excited and in disbelief of what they said that purple tears came to his eyes. "For real?"

Jade nodded. "I think Equius needs this-he's only had puppy love once before and the owners were all like 'quit playing around with Floppy,'" Jade deepened her voice to imitate them and shrugged. "He needs this. We'll be right back."

The two of them smiled reassuringly and left to go find Equius. Dave turned to the other trolls in the room and grinned. "Okay guys. You know what time it is?"

"Snack time?" Sollux peeped up.

"With cookies!" Karkat added with great interest.

Dave laughed and shook his head. "Close," he stepped towards Cronus and the grub. "Time to name the beast."

Meanwhile at Zahhak's office, the girl had entered an were trying to talk sense into the vet. "C'mon, Equius! You're great with kids," Feferi said.

He was in his office chair, hands rolled into fists on the arm rests. His body was defeated, like a kid who was waiting outside the principles office, just waiting for a punishment. He had taken off his glasses and pulled out his pony tail. It was very obvious he was tired and done with the shit the day had to offer. He had half a mind to tell the girls to try and find a home for the grub, but he had...puppy love. God, he hated puppy love with a passion.

The girls were on the office couch, Feferi was using her begging technique right now with a lip sticking out and her eyes artificially wet with tears. Equius wasn't exactly amused with the girls being there, and even with stone face it was obvious without his glasses on.

"Plus look at how Karkat and Sollux look at you!" Jade put in. "That must mean something, right?"

"Sollux and Karkat live with the Striders and only see us when-"

"When they're sick or troll business, yes, we know," Feferi rolled her eyes in exasperation. "But look at how much they love being around you!" An encouraging smile from Fef was given. "Remember the hug you got from Karkat after the last check-up?"

"He loves you! What makes you think that a smaller troll won't?"

"Because it could've died today." He spoke with guilt stinging his words. "If I hadn't been standing by Cronus..."

"But you weren't. You were distracted and you've obviously learned from that, right?"

"...I suppose."

"Plus it probably wouldn't have died. Trolls are studier than that!" Jade put in with a tiny smile.

He said nothing so she went on. "Equius, look at it like this," Jade stood up off the couch and wondered around his office. She raised her hand at all his awards and diplomas. "You probably failed a test, or gave an animal the wrong dosage, right? Well, that's okay and you leaned from it-a mistake. Because everybody makes mistakes!"

Feferi stood up too and went over to him and pecked his cheek. "You know you'll be okay with the grub. Trust us."

He shook his head. As tempting as it was, he just couldn't risk it getting hurt on his watch. "Thank you, ladies, but I must ask you to find a more suitable home."

There was a pregnant pause in the room along with tension you could cut with a knife. Feferi seemed a little mad at him and Jade seemed more disappointed than anything else. The two girls hesitated a bit before his words sunk in and slowly nodded.

Feferi threw her hands up and shook them in the air. "Fine. Whatever you say, Doctor Zahhak." She turned on her heel and stomped to the door. "You can be miserable all on your own, see if I care." With a quick hand she threw it open, stormed out, and slammed it shut.

Jade glanced over and gave his hands a small pat. "Just think about it, okay? The grub really seems to like you a lot. Maybe you don't want her, but we do need to name her sometime soon. Try to think of some names, that's fun, right?" She got up and walked to the door and smiled at him a final time before walking out.

He sighed when she left and messaged his head. "Why must I have the damned puppy love on a troll..." Equius sat up and closed his eyes. He was tired and could go for a strong drink.

"Watch, they're going to name it off a character or something stupid." He grunted to himself.

Hm...well, he did have a break right now. A spare thought about the name couldn't be that bad.

He automatically ruled the more common and unusual names off like Princess, Desire, etc. done humans have those types if names and while it gave them personality, he found it to be demeaning.

Well, he wanted the name to be proper and fitting. The human groaned as to what that meant he had to do. To properly name her, he'd have to see what her personality showed right now. Meaning, more interaction with his puppy loved troll.


	4. Chapter 4

When Equius went into the room again, he found the two youngest members of the group studying Cronus. The three of them had officially decided to watch over the grub while everybody else was off doing more important things. Equius knew for a fact that Feferi was responding to people on the facebook page, Jade was trying to find people she knew or mutual friends who could take in the olive-blood. The Striders were separated at this time, Dave was babysitting the trolls and Dirk was helping out with Jade.

The grub was purring slightly when Cronus pet her hair. The cleft lip was unfortunate, she was scarred for life before her life actually began. He once heard somewhere that our bodies were like canvases, clean when we came out into the world. As times goes by, the canvas is decorated with scars, emotions, memories, etc. When we die, the canvas would be a masterpiece and the title of the perfect art would be your name.

Her canvas had gotten a head start and was damaged a bit on the way there. But all the same, her soft features made up for it. In fact, with the framing black hair, the cat like horns, the soft grey skin tone in the light, her baby teeth barely poking out from the lips, all of it seemed so perfect. So her.

The vet smiled to himself and crossed his muscle covered arms. Yes, it seemed as though her canvas had gotten a head start and was already adding to other people's canvases. He glanced at the clock. Not even an hour old, and he already could swear she was changing his life. The puppy love was strong with this one, he could tell. Sometimes, if a caretaker was lucky, they would be able to keep whatever it was that gave them that infectious disease.  
In the middle of winter, the little grub was the center of attention, but it seemed as though all of her attention went directly to Equius when she saw him. She started to squirm in Cronus's arms and squeaked loudly. Equius slowly kneeled down onto the floor and nodded for Cronus to let her go. The purple-blood did, but with a tad bit of concern written on his face.

The olive-blood started to crawl towards him. She started slowly and wobbly at first. It was her first time walking on actual floor. When Equius glanced around the room, everybody was watching him. Dave had his phone pulled out and seemed to be filming this for more "aww" effect online. The other three trolls in the room were watching her as well, they wanted to hold her, but they knew to let him have his time with the grub while he still could.

"Squeak?" The grub spoke up with her opinion. It was a soft little squeak too, but it seemed as though it took a lot of effort to make that sound. And just like that, all who were in the room with them disappeared to Equius. It was just him and this adorable little olive-blood who just started life. She had no idea what was going on, oblivious to everything in the world. So innocent, so young, so...perfect.

She started to go a bit faster in walking. Every now and then she would stop and watched him intently, but always continued on. He spoke encouraging words to her softly, as though he was apart of a musical. He refused to sing, but just in that moment, it seemed as though his whispers were of that; soft notes being hit perfectly.

When she was close enough to pet, he started to encourage her further. Before she had made it to the finish line, he noticed that she was slowing down significantly. "You're almost there, now. Don't stop, it's okay. Keep going," he repeated to her. She made a noise that sounded like she was agreeing and continued on to him.

She eventually made it to him and collapsed in his waiting hands. She yawned and curled up in the massive, protective, loving, hands that were of Equius Zahhak. She rubbed her head on his palm and licked it delicately. He watched over her as she slowly went to sleep. His face was full of love for this small being. When he finally tore his gaze from her, he was met with two smirking faces and two of just normal curiosity.

He blushed slightly, but didn't mind the attention. In that moment, all he really cared for was the bundle of olive in his grasp. But first…

"Cronus, I need you to take her for a moment." Equius whispered to Cronus. He didn't want to wake her just yet, she was tired from her first walk.

Cronus came over immediately and gently, they switched the troll from the vet's arms to the former patient's. "The two have been arguing what her name is, chief." Cronus whispered to Equius when he got the grub. "When do you think we can all do that?"

Equius paused in his thoughts and considered it. "Give me an hour and we can think of something."

Cronus nodded and looked at Karkat and Sollux. They were standing near him and he went down on his knees so the two could see her better. He began murmuring something to them, probably along the lines of being careful with her and to be quiet when she's asleep.

Equius nodded at Dave and the two went out into the hallway. They gently shut the door and walked a bit further away from the door before the conversation began.

"So, Dr. Z." Dave smiled. "Do you want to keep the little bundle of joy?"

Equius sighed and pulled out his sunglasses. "She is cute."

"But nothing other than cute out of you? Damn, man, she is adorable." After getting no response, Dave added. "Chicks dig cute things."

Equius stopped and looked at Dave carefully "I am not going to keep her just so Feferi will gawke over her."  
Dave continued to smile in the way that taunted he knew something.

"Why are you still smiling? I told you that I wasn't goi-"

"Ah. But you said you'll keep her."

Equius paused to realize what he let out and shook his head. "Mr. Strider, I am keeping her because I want her. The darn puppy love, as the ladies called it, had gotten me and," He paused and looked back at the room she was in. "I can't let her get hurt. I love her already."

Dave bobbed his head slightly with a smirk on his face and turned around. "I got you, bro. I feel the same way about Karkles and Sollux."

Equius nodded. "I think we all share some love for those two."

Dave smiled again and slapped the vet on the back as he passed him to go back to the room.

He smiled to himself for a second, but then moved into the room where Dirk and Jade were working on finding the grub a home. Jade was on the phone with somebody and Dirk was shooting out emails on the computer in the room.

"That's right, she's an olive-blood." Jade spoke into the clinic's phone. She took the phone off her face and mouthed to him that she found somebody. "In fact, Dr. Zahhak is here in the room. No, ma'am, he just walked in. Would you like to speak to him? He would have more details then I would."

She nodded and spoke when needed. She looked to him and smiled. "Yes, ma'am, he sure can. Alright. Alright. Sure! Just one moment."

She took the phone off her face and pressed the 'hold' button before setting the phone down on the receiver. "We found somebody!"

Dirk nodded and continued to type on the computer. "She lives fifteen minutes away from here, has a huge back yard, plenty of room for the grub, no pets, no kids, and agreed to switch over her from her usual vet so you can see her."

Jade winked at him when he glanced at her. "What else did she say?"

"Her name is Mrs. Wilson, but she's a widow. She's been wanting a pet for a while now and has been hearing about the troll rights lately. She's a full supporter and feels that if she got a troll she could do more for them."

"Occupation?" He began the drilling. Whenever they had a pet that they needed to give away and somebody was offering to take them, they always did a background check. And he felt it was right to ask as many questions as he could about this one. Especially if it were for the little grub.

"She's a dental assistant at the office by that bookstore."

He sighed and pinched his nose bridge. "I hear bad things about that one."

"She's trying to get a new job someplace else."

"Does she live in apartments or a house?"

"She and her roommate are living at a house." Jade turned around on the wheely chair to face him. "Equius, usually these type of people check out okay in our book. I think we should let her take the grub."

After a moment's pause he went around Jade and picked up the phone and took it off hold. "Mrs. Wilson?"

Jade and Dirk were watching him closely. Something was up with him. If this were for a dog or cat, he wouldn't have blinked an eye at them and let the animal go with them. What was he planning?

After a moment of listening to her talking, he shook his head and smiled gently. He made sure to turn to the wall and avoid both of their gaze. "Mrs. Wilson, I'm terribly sorry, but we already found a home for the small grub."

Jade turned to Dirk and smiled brightly. She turned back and jumped up and hugged Equius. He almost fell forward, but managed to hold himself up by throwing his arm up on the wall. "Oof! No, no, sorry. That was my associate. Sorry, what was that? Yes, it is in a good home, thank for you asking. Yes, ma'am. Alright. Have a good day."

He hung up the phone and tried to block out the squeals Jade was making.

Later that day, the eight of them were sitting in the waiting room watching her run around. She had so much energy for something that size, it was entertaining for them to watch. They pulled the lunch break out early and was closed for the next hour or so. Karkat and Sollux finally got their cookies and were munching on them peacefully.

Equius was going without lunch that day, while Feferi made do of his salad for him. Jade had a sandwich and the Striders had gotten McDonalds for themselves and Cronus. The small grub had received a very yummy treat of green apple slices, ironically enough to match her blood color.

"So, I think it is high time to name her, don't you think?" Equius spoke. His voice was now in his normal deep tone and it seemed to snap everybody out of their trance of watching her.

"Yeah, but what should we name her?" Dirk sighed, leaning back in his chair.

"Olive!" Karkat shouted, the grub flinching a bit.

"Karkat, remember that we have to be quieter around her right now," Dave chided. "She has sensitive ears."

"What about Candy?" Jade spoke up. "She's sweet enough it could work for her."

"No, I'm not going to name her after food or have her get a pet name like," he turned to Feferi, "tuna."

She giggled and playfully pushed him. "I told you I was kidding!"

Sollux was studying her deeply. Her hair was a mess, almost tangle and bangs everywhere. The ends seemed to point straight back up and curled a bit as well. Her small fangs poking out from her cleft lip, making a three appear on her face. Even her horns, which were extremely sensitive for the first few weeks. "She looks like a cat," he observed.

The others looked at her and tried to figure out her features as well. "Sorta, yeah." Jade remarked. "Maybe we should name her something that deals with cat-like stuff!"

"'I told you, no pet names." Equius sighed. "Trolls are not pets."

"I know, but hear her out." Feferi defended. "I think I like where she's going."

Jade smiled at Feferi and went on. "I think if we gave her a name that's uncommon, but deal with cats, it won't count as a pet name."

"And I doubt that a troll would like a human name," Cronus pipped in. "I sure as hell wouldn't. No offense or anything, but I doubt that a troll would really like the name 'Susie.' All of our names are unique."

Silence filled the room and Dirk reached for Sollux's Ipad. He started typing in things in google and quickly found what he was looking for. "Nepeta. AKA, catnip. Well, a type of."

The grub looked up when he said that and blinked questioning what was going on.  
"Dirk, say that again. Everybody, look." Cronus said.

"...Nepeta?"

The grub looked around at the name being called. "Nepeta," Dave laughed. The grub turned to him and squeaked.

"Nepeta," Karkat clapped and giggled when she turned to him.

"Looks like we got a responder." Dave smiled. "What do you think, Equius?"

He studied her for a second then pronounced the name, "Nepeta?"

She turned to him and crawled over to him and squeaked, putting her legs up on his foot. She rubbed her head onto his jeans and he smiled softly.

"Not only that, but I think grubby chose you." Feferi smiled and pecked his cheek. "I think you just got a new friend, Equius."

"Nepeta." Equius agreed. The name sounded right. "Her name is Nepeta."


	5. Chapter 5

Throughout the next week, the newly named grub had been very cared for. They had all pitched in to take shifts watching it to make sure nothing happened to it. Originally, it had stayed in Zahhak's office with the door almost constantly being locked. Every once and a while the grub had wandered off under furniture in the office and it was, a long story short, a fiasco to try and retrieve her.

"Oh shit, come on out," Cronus cursed softly to himself. "This isn't funny and my shift is almost over!"

He reached under and stretched to try and reach her, but she crawled away from his grabbing hand. "Nepeta, come on," he groaned. "Equius's turn is next and he's gonna-"

"I'm going to what, Cronus?"

Cronus jumped and quickly got up on his feet. He backed up and smiled feebly. "Chief! You're early!"

Equius have him a confused face and nodded slowly. "Yes, I realize. I finished my last patient earlier than I expected so I decided to come and help you out." He stepped towards Cronus and looked around. "Where's Nepeta?"

Cronus sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He tried to think of an excuse that would somehow help him out of this mess, but failed to think of something believable. "She's uh..she's under your chair again."

Equius sighed and got onto his knees. He tried to reach under and she crawled away too. Over the past week, she had been working on crawling and was getting pretty damn well good at it. That's one of the reasons that the door was to remained locked at all times. If she got out and a pet thought of her as a moving toy...

That's when Dave had found something on Pinterest one night that sparked an idea. You take an inflatable pool and put a bunch of blankets down inside it, along with a couple toys and bam. Instant crib that a grub couldn't get out of. Neither would a baby, but it's easier to lose a grub than a baby.

It works splendidly. Once Nepeta is put inside, she crawls around to explore what new type of floor it is. The plastic feels foreign to her little..leg...type things. Dave had no idea what to call them, Equius and Feferi had told him what they were called many times. But he really just didn't know what to really call them after he forgot. Stubs didn't really seemed to work, but so far that's all he got. So for now, we call them stubs.

Her stubs wanted to explore around the pool with new feeling to it. The plastic feeling to it made her mind confused. This was all so new, especially with huge plastic walls around her. She can't see over the walls anymore, making everything seem so much smaller.

She was used to it being huge and having huge things to hide under. They were like mountains, only with space underneath to hang out. Whenever she was under them, enjoying the view of everything around her. It was like her private hiding spot that nobody could see her.

Of course, for some reason, she was usually quickly discovered and people would try to grab her. She never really liked this, but she would take the grabbing over walls that surrounded her constantly. Nepeta had tried to climb over them a few times, but the plastic always just made her go down and land painfully.

Pretty soon she gave up on escape and decided to wait until something happened that allowed her to flee the scene. Until then, she had a bunch of toys to play with. Her absolute favorite was a white cat with green eyes. She would always lay on top of it and bite it's ears when she was bored. The other toys in there were a squeaky toy, a tug of war rope, a rubber ball, some yarn, and a stuffed mouse toy that smelled strongly of catnip.

They took that last toy away somewhat quickly. After she had smelled it she dove on it and was quick to start acting weird. She started squealing and running around in circles in the pool like a racetrack. Equius glared at Jake who was the one who gave her the toy in the first place. He had his stone face on and even took off his glasses when he found out what happened to Nepeta.

Jake and Equius had words. Jake wasn't allowed to enter his office while Nepeta was in there anymore.

Now, Nepeta was being watched by her favorite person. In her perspective, Equius was really really cool. He even sat inside the pool with her and tossed the ball for her to run after it. Granted, all of the people who came usually did that, but he was different. When it started to get less busy, he would come in more than other people. And every now and then, he would come in to lay down in the pool with her and he would sleep for a long time.

She would always crawl up onto his chest and snuggled up and sleep there with him. She had no idea what time was or any idea of it passing. She was inside an office with a window that had the blinds shut. All she knew was different people would come inside and watch her for a while then would switch out.

Equius was the most frequent visitor of them all, obviously. She started to recognize him quicker than the others. She wouldn't be able to speak until a little after she was a troll instead of a grub. But until then, she liked to think of picture stories in her mind. More pictures than words, but the stories would usually include her and the people that watched her.

Right now Dave was watching her. He had brought her food earlier, and she was still working on the apple he brought her. He himself had brought a tuna sandwich and was somewhat eating it, somewhat playing with her. The younger Strider had tried to get her to play with the ball a bit, but she was currently lying upside down with a bored expression on her face.

"Come on, don't you wanna play a bit?" Dave prodded, rolling the ball to the wall and catching it when it bounced back to him.

She groaned and abandoned the apple he brought her. "You know Dr. Z wants you to eat that, right? It's not just a decoration." He chided and picked up the apple slices that she had left out and started towards the trash can.

As he was throwing the apples away, a knock on the door caught his attention. After the door was unlocked, he opened it to find Bro there, holding a bag. "Hey, man. This is for you."

"What is it?" Dave began to open it and reeled back when he saw what was in the bag. "Dude, not cool!"

"What? Lil' Cal missed you and wanted to say 'hi!'"  
This quickly escalated into a miniature argument. For normal people, it only meant that they were discussing with snapping responses. But for the Striders this meant that they weren't going to take out their weapons and udderly kill each other quite yet.

Nepeta listened to them fight for a second, but something else quickly got her attention instead. She smelt something that called out to her like nothing else had ever done before. She turned her head and saw Dave's tuna sandwich sitting on the top of the pool. She knew for a fact that she couldn't be able to get up there, so instead she charged forward and rammed her head into the side of the pool. The attempt proved to be successful! The sandwich fell to the ground with a splat.

Neither Strider noticed this. Nepeta paused for a second to make sure and quickly dug in. The tuna was something she had never laid eye on, but this was definitely better than apples. It tasted like mush compared to the apple and was significantly better. Instead of the fruity juice that slipped into her throat, this had more of a different taste. It definitely tasted better though, something indescribable to her young mind. The tuna also had these green dot things that were juicy too, but it tasted different than the other green thing that they were feeding her.

She continued to eat the soft fish meat until Dave picked her up roughly. "Crap, did you eat this?" He cursed under his breath and took her over to Bro, who was still in the doorway. "Take her, would you? I think she got into my tuna sandwich."

She squeaked in protest and squirmed around, but Bro had an excellent grip on her. "Sure. What're you gonna tell the others?" The elder brother smirked at him. "I mean, tuna's healthy, I think, so you shouldn't get into too much trouble, will you?"

"Man, I don't know. Crap she got it everywhere. Is there any towels or something?" Dave glanced up from the pool with a hint of fear on his face. The pool had tuna smeared across the floor around where people were sitting when they played with Nepeta.

"I would guess so. This is a vet's office," Bro looked around and sucked in air through his teeth. "I could ask somebody if you want."

Dave quickly shook his head. "No! No, then people would know."

Nepeta wiggled around in Bro's arms and squeaked loudly. "I think that Lil' Grubby likes the tuna. Wanna give her some more?" He asked sarcastically.

Dave gently pushed his older brother out of the way and raced to the bathroom. He returned a second later with soaked paper towels. "I gotta clean up this mess."

Bro nodded. "Better do that. While you're doing that, I think Nepeta and I will go hang with Feferi."

"Whatever, man, just don't loose her. I'm pretty sure that Equius scares me just as much as he scares you."

"He does not scare me. Plus I'm not the one who caused this to happen."

Dave groaned and Bro smirked as he walked away with his grasp tightening when they entered the lobby/waiting room. There was a small white kitten in a woman's arms who perked up when it saw Nepeta and in turn, she perked up as well. Her eyes barely were able to peek over Bro's shirt to see the kitten.

"Hey Dirk! You're not suppose to have her out here," Feferi smiled and gently pet her head.

Bro shrugged and set her down on the counter. "I know, but Dave accidentally fed her tuna and had to clean it up."

Feferi giggled and pet her again. "God, she is so cute."

The conversation continued from there, but Nepeta blocked it out. The kitten managed to wiggle out of it's owner's arms and started running over to the counter. Nepeta started crawling towards the feline.

Feferi and Bro noticed what was going on when the owner called out the small cat's name, but by then Nepeta and the kitten were nose to nose. The cat was sniffing all over Nepeta to try and figure out what the hell she was. Nepeta on the other hand was thrilled to see something like this. She had no idea what it was, but it had to be something great. Nepeta began purring and the cat purred back at her.

"Squeak!" Nepeta struggled when Bro picked her up. The cat strained to manage a meow when the owner picked it up.

"I'm so sorry, is the um...is it alright?" The lady asked as she held her cat in concern.

"I think so." Bro checked her over. "Crap. I don't want to tell Equius this, but..." He glanced over at Feferi. "Does she seem alright to you?"

Feferi ran her hand through her hair in distress and sighed. "I'm not sure. I think so."

Nepeta struggle to get out of his arms and squeaked again to the cat. As if it knew what she was saying, the cat meowed back. Nepeta tilted her head and purred.

"Do you think they know what they're saying?" The women asked and pet the animal's head.

"Dunno. Maybe."

The kitten meowed again, this time slower. Nepeta opened her mouth and tried it herself. This time, more than a meow came out instead of a squeak. The adults looked up at each other in shock. The cat did it again and Nepeta played copy cat with it.

"Pounce, what do you think you are teaching her?"

Nepeta meowed this time and it came very close to Pounce's own. Nepeta purred at their reactions and smiled. She was so proud of herself for meowing for the first time. Pounce was too, apparently. The white kitten managed to reach far enough and lick Nepeta on her face.

Nepeta giggled and licked Pounce's face back and rubbed her head on the soft white fur.

"Well. She already looks like a cat, why not have her act like one?" Feferi smiled and petted her gently.

Later that day, Dave, Bro, and Feferi stopped Equius just as he was about to head home for a quick shower before coming back here to watch Nepeta. He usually left right after the clinic closed and came back an hour or so later. He was pretty tired after such a busy day and didn't really want to talk very long.

"What?"

"We have good a and bad news," Dave stated again. "Which would you like?"

"The bad news." Equius sighed. He could already feel his headache coming on.

"Okay, so good news!" Dave clapped his hands together. "Nepeta..." Equius began to stare over the horrid glasses and blinked for him to continue...carefully.

He didn't. "Nepeta's news will be told be Bro Strider!" He shoved his older brother forward and stepped back.

The elder sighed and cracked a nervous smile. "Well, she uh. She learned a new trick today."

"And what was that?" The vet asked curiously.

"She leaned to meow." Bro braced himself for impact.

"That's good."

Dave strode forward and grinned brightly. "Yes, isn't it great? She learned to meow, are tuna and got to meet a cat all in-"

Bro quickly slapped him over the head and hissed for him to shut up.

Equius glanced between them and with a confused face, turned to Feferi. "What?"

She smiled gently and kissed him. "She's fine. Dave accidentally left his tuna sandwich out and she ate it. Bro took her out of her pool and brought her to see me. Then a cat came up and taught her to meow." She pecked his cheek and smiled sweetly at his flustered face. "I think it's adorable. Don't you?"

He nodded with a blush to his features. She smiled again and turned out of the room, calling behind her, "Maybe tonight you could teach me to meow."

Equius's blush deepened and he nodded furiously before following her out to the car. He tripped on a chair near the door an actually cursed before jogging to his car. Feferi had already left, but as they watched his car turn left they could tell he meant to. He turns right to get home and left for Feferi's.

Dave and Bro exchanged glances before Dave groaned and pulled out a twenty before placing it in Bro's hand. "I still say that she'll be the one wearing the pants."

"Kid, over there, nobody is going to be wearing pants anytime soon."

Dave nearly gasped at his brother's comment, instead pulling off a snicker. "Yeah, maybe."

After a second, Jade came out into the room and looked between them. "I have to close up for now, guys. I'm sorry, but Equius hates it when-"

Bro held up his hand. "No. That's fine. We have to go home and make sure that Sollux didn't kill our favorite purple blood anyway."

She nodded and began to gather her things while the Strider brothers got into their car and pulled out of the parking lot. The car rides were usually silent, awkward, or very loud with blaring music or three trolls. This one was a comfortable silence with just them.

"Hey, Bro?" Dave broke the silence after a few minutes. "Do you think Nepeta's okay being there by herself? I know Dr. Z will be back after like two hours, but I'm a little worried about her being by herself."

Bro shrugged. "Well, she's been fine these last few nights. What makes you think something would be different about this time?"

"I have a really bad feeling about tonight though. Like, this could be classified as Strider level of not good feeling." Dave exhaled through his nose. "Please, can we take her with us? Just for tonight. I can't leave her."

Bro copied his sigh and pulled over to the right. After a few minutes he muttered something then spoke louder. "Dude, where would we put her?"

A pause. "Cronus's room. He wouldn't let anything happen to her."

Another minute passed. "Don't you think Equius would flip when he gets there and she isn't?"

"We can call him. Please, Bro, please. This is a Strider-"

"A Strider level of ickiness. I got that." He took off his glasses for a second then shook his head in surrender. A Strider feeling was not to be ignored under any circumstance. "Call Jade, we'll turn around. Then phone Cronus and tell him that he's babysitting tonight."

After they pull back into the clinic's parking lot, Jade arrives up in her small blue car. All three of the humans get out of the car and continue to venture up to the glass doors. Painted on dog and cat paws greet Dave as he goes into the building. He only is there for a small green troll while the others will wait by the door.

He passed by a traveling case-probably for a cat or small dog, but he picks it up anyway. It'll be easier to travel with Nepeta that way. Not only that, but she would arrive at Casa de Strider is style. It had holes in the side she could see out of and a handle for you to carry. There was even a towel on the floor already, prepared just for Dave.

After picking the cage up he went to the locked office. At the top of the door there was a key that leaned against the wall on the surrounding out frame. He put the golden key into the slot and professionally turned it to the right until he heard a click and went inside.

It was very dark without any lights on. Nepeta didn't really like the dark just quite yet, so they usually had a lamp in the corner on for her so she couldn't be surrounded by the scary dark. Even though Dave had just stepped into the room, he could already hear her scampering around in the pool, peacefully playing with a toy or playing a game.

"Hey, Nepeta! You're gonna go someplace new!" Dave spoke with a, somewhat fake, excited voice.

She believed him as she meowed up at him. That was pretty adorable, actually. He smiled at her and let her smell and remember him before he picked her up. Just because he was nervous for whatever reason, didn't mean that she should be. He gently released her into the cage before shutting the door in and locking it by letting go of the two push down handles.

After that, he turned off the lamp and out the door he went. He didn't bother locking the door to Dr. Z's office. There wasn't anything important in there, anyway.

He found Bro and Jade waiting for him when he got to the front door. He smiled at Jade and playfully ignored his brother. "I got the cargo, are we ready to launch?" Dave joked.

"That depends. Are you going to be a dweeb all the way back to our place?" His brother smirked. "Because I like the grub more than you so I wouldn't have a problem with leaving you here."

"Oh ha-ha. Jade," he turned to their friend. "Thank you for coming back. Did you want to come over and hang out?"

"Oh I can't, thank you though. It's our parents anniversary today, so Jake and I are going to dinner here soon." Jade sighed. "I wish I could though. Tell the boys we said hi, though!"

"Will do," without a warning, Bro put his hand on Dave's head and started stearing him away from Jade. "But dweeby and I need to get home and get Nepeta set up."

Jade laughed and waved. "Okay. I'll tell Dr. Z that you guys took her for the night."

Later that night, Dave was shaken awake by his brother. His glasses were off and the strange orange color was eerie to see the first thing in the morning. "Hey, Dave. Wake up," his brother hissed softly. Everybody else was asleep and he didn't want them to worry just yet.

"What," Dave groaned. "What is it?"

"Zahhak called me just now."

Dave got up and yawned. "I thought Jade was gonna tell him we took Nepeta?"

"She did." Bro leaned back a bit and stood up with his hands in his jeans. He was dressed, but Dave knew very well that he slept in his boxers. If he threw on his clothes then he probably was going somewhere. "It's the clinic. It's been broken into."

Dave gasped and was about to say something when Bro went on. "They got into Zahhak's office and didn't touch a thing."

"Then how do we know they went in there?"

"Because the pool was destroyed. They were trying to take Nepeta."


	6. Chapter 6

It was too early for bullshit like this. After Dave had nodded back to sleep five or six times, Bro called it quits and didn't even want to threaten him at that point. When his little brother didn't respond, he emptied a bottle of water from the fridge on him.

Dave instantly sat up and cursed around in surprise. "Dude, what the actual fuck?!"

"We have to get our asses over there, that's what." Bro wasn't the best to mess with this early in the morning. He pulled the covers off of Dave and threw a shirt off the floor at him before turning around and leaving the room. "Now move."

Dave groaned and turned around to find the grub of attention in view. "Bro, what about Nepeta?"

He heard him curse from the hall and turn around to come back into his room. Dave could see the tired bags under his eyes and the strain he's putting on his brain for more ideas. "I don't know." He ran his hand through his hair like he always did when stressed out. "I don't think we should take her with."

Dave only had to think for a moment before picking her up, trying to ignore her squirming a bit, and silently pads to Cronus's room before pushing the door open. "Wake up, dude. You got babysitting tonight."

Cronus groaned and rolled over. "No way, Chief. I'm not waking up to watch the twerps."

"Wake up and watch Nepeta. We have to go to see Dr. Z." Bro comes into the room, pulls the blanket off of the troll and crosses his arms. "Now."

Cronus finally stirs and takes Nepeta in his arms. She's pretty tired and wants nothing more than to go back to sleep. She must be confused with all that's going on. And apparently scared with how she's shivering already. Her squirming increased and she actually managed to get out of his arms and scurried to hide under his pillow.

Dave studied him for a moment before rubbing his head. "Are you positive that you can handle this?"

Cronus nodded and lifted the pillow up I reveal the grub. She turned tail and hissed up at him, tiny teeth bared at him. Her expression was already starting to look more like a cat. Her horns, lips, the threatening eyes, everything about her features made her seem as if she were a kitten instead of a small grub. Cronus blinked and hissed back.

The grub charged at him with her horns pointed out and rammed into his arm. He barely flinched and lifted her up into the air. She whimpered and began to pace nervously in his firm grip. When she couldn't move she began to cry a bit with tiny sobs and green tears.

Cronus instantly felt bad and cooed to her softly, smiling like a father to his new born child. Dave nodded and left the room before he was sucked into watching the display Cronus was putting on for the grub. He wondered who would win in a match for the grub, Equius or Cronus. Equius was pretty strong, but Cronus had horns. He could just imagine them fighting while Dave pulled a classic story plot and ran off with Nepeta.

Bro was waiting for him by the time he finally emerged out of the room and tossed him the keys. "You're driving. I have emails to respond to." Dave rolled his eyes under his shades and followed him out to the car.

Outside the night air was still active and instantly covered them with a icy bite. It had started to snow a bit earlier and frost covered everything in a delicate blanket. You could smell it from the doorway with the ice biting your nose. In Texas they didn't have much of a problem with this, but every once and a while they would get an inch of snow and cities would shut down.

Dave wished the city shut down when it was this cold. The Striders made it to the safety of the car before the ice could completely consume them. "I hated the movie, I don't want to actually be frozen, thanks." Dave sneered to himself as he stuck the keys into the ignition.

The drive to the clinic was a very quiet one. The white glow from Bro's phone filled the car for most of the ride, street lights flashing by too fast to put up a fight. Every once and a while Bro would mumble his response or read aloud the important ones that needed both of their inputs, but other than that, silence ate away. It began to snow again and Dave watched the snowflakes fly by the car. It always interested him as a kid to watch the snow fall slowly then faster as they got closer to the car. But to drive in them was a pain, he actually had to take a class of how to drive in snow because of how difficult was for him.

When Dave eventually pulled up to the clinic, both of the Strider brothers were shocked to see a few police cruisers parked outside. Equius's car blended into them with Jade's right next to his. The lights were on inside, the door was shattered, and the alarm was still flashing around above the doors. Equius, Feferi, and Jade were already there, talking to cops outside. He could already see that they were all tired and worried, but had to keep a professional face on.

Dave and Bro parked next to a police car move carefully then other times. They did not want another parking ticket today, it would be so embarrassing to get one parked right next to it. Unfortunately, before he could fully park, his wheels hit the curb and bounced them back. Dave cursed and shut off the engine. Bro have him a thumbs up and got out of the car before he was seen with that loser of a brother.

Dave tabbed the steering wheel with his fingers and sighed before opening the door and stepping out into the snow. The snow crunched under his feet as he walked closer to the others. He began to shiver and instantly wished he brought a jacket or something. It was freezing and he could see his breath easily.

Bro was already talking to Equius and his cop by the time that Dave walked up to them. Equius nodded at him politely as he stepped up. Dave could tell he was beyond angry with everything that happened. He was glad that they took Nepeta with them, but Equius seemed worried about her still. She was safe at home, why was he upset?

The cop nodded and finished the conversation that had been going on. "Well, Dr. Zahhak, we will let you know any further information."

"Thank you, sir. I appreciate it." He stuck out his hand and shook it firmly with the officer. The officer turned and joined his partner in the car. The ones talking to Jade and Feferi were still there taking notes for as they talked on.

Zahhak sighed deeply and ran his hand through his untidy hair. He looked like hell. His tired eyes were uncovered from his glasses, messy hair that was out of it's ponytail, even his pajamas seemed to be upset and out of order. He turned his blue eyes to Dave and Bro. "Where do you think they took her?"

The Striders shared a confused look before turning back to him. "W-what do you mean?" Dave shivered. He was running his hands over his arms to try and keep some of his warmth and generate more.

"I mean Nepeta. She's gone." He snapped and began to shift his weight from leg to leg. It was very obvious that he was tense and didn't want to keep still.

"What? No she's not. She's back at our place with Cronus." Bro crossed his arms over his chest. "We took her for a sleepover tonight. Jade was suppose to tell you."

Equius relaxed as soon as the words came out of his mouth. He smiled and laughed in relief. After a second he shook his head and looked over to Jade. "No, she didn't. Is Nepeta okay?"

"Yeah, she's cool. She didn't like being woken up and taken to his room though." Dave smirked a bit at the memory of her charging Cronus. "She's a tough little grub for her size. She tried to take our dear Mr. Purple on."

Equius shared his smirk and crossed his arms. "And?"

Dave nodded and smiled with a chuckle. "She didn't win. Last I saw he was trying to get her to calm down from that rough ride. Oh no, no, she didn't get hurt. She just rammed him and then realized he wasn't dead and freaked out."

Equius 'hmm'ed and widened his smirk. "She's very eager."

The sound of car doors shutting caught their attention. The two police officers waved at them through the windshield of their cruiser and pulled out of the parking the parking lot free of cops, it felt almost normal again. Just as if they were talking about normal things, not like a thief tried to enter or anything. All just normal things.

Not too soon afterwards, Jade and Feferi made their way over to them. The two of them seemed exhausted from having to get up so early and make reports to the police. Feferi still managed to achieve her usual cheeriness and smiled at the males as they approached. "Hey guys! How're you?"

Bro grunted and Dave shrugged. "We could complain, but are choosing not to at the moment. It might change in the very near future." Dave greeted her with a high five and nodded to Jade. "I think you forgot to tell Dr. Z something, Jade."

Jade scrunched her eyebrows up, confused at what he was saying. "What are you talking about?"

Dave gave her a black stare. "About Nepeta?"

It took her a few seconds before it clicked and she immediately turned to her boss. "Oh my god, I am so sorry. See, Dave had me turn around and we went and got her-"

Equius held up his hands and nodded a few times to make her stop talking. "Mr. Strider already explained everything to me. I understand. You just gave me a heart attack."

"So no big deal then," She smiled and relaxed.

"No, it is, but I forgive you regardless." He crossed his arms and looked at the rest of them. "What are we going to do now?"

Feferi looked at the broken down door and deflated a little bit. "I guess we close for a couple days while that's being repaired and for the police to finish their investigation. And," she turned to him in a sing-song voice. "That gives you time to take Nepeta home!"

He looked at the floor and smiled slightly. "I suppose it does. Would you mind if I take her?" He turned to the Striders. "I know how much you enjoy having her over, but I would like to steal her back."

Bro patted the vet's back and managed a small smile. "We got three trolls to spare, I think you can take her back."

The group all went back to their houses to get a few more hours of sleep before the real work began. And for Dr. Z, he had to begin now.

Equius had to grub-proof his house, which wasn't as easy as he imagined. His grub, no, the grub, was very catlike and would like to get under or on everything. Counters, the fridge, chairs, everything in his house would be a playground to her. His house was fairly large and had a huge backyard with plenty of trees and bushes. Maybe he would be able to bring her outside every once a while. She would like the trees he had around his house to play in or around.

He realized that he would have to take all the knick knacks he owned and put them up on higher shelves. Speaking of shelves, his entire living room was mainly books. Shelves upon shelves, books were stacked everywhere. They all ranged from a simple hundred pages to over seven hundred. He didn't have anything for kids, which would quickly need to change. She might like to read, or watch tv, he didn't know. For now, he would need some help on how to raise kids.

He had brought in a much smaller pool for her to play in in front of the book shelves. He filled that with the couch pillows he usually used for decoration and brought the other things found from the other pool in there too. She would like the familiarity of it. She won't like the new surroundings, however, so that could be an issue. But he was sure that after a few days that she'd get used to it and calm down.

What made him most anxious though was the fact that she would probably imprint on him. After a few days of hatching, a grub would imprint on whoever had been around the longest. If the grub was wild, the lusus would be around almost constantly, so of course, the grub imprints on them for the first few months of it's life. Nepeta, however, was around so many people at different times she might've been confused and not imprinted on anybody yet. Karkat and Sollux were passed the point of that phase when they were found and nobody needed to worry about it. But now that they had a newly hatched troll, things were very different.

Equius knew he would be okay to imprint on. There could be worse people in the world to do so on. She could've ended up with a cage fighter as a caretaker. That would've been horrible. The vet cringed at the thought of Nepeta being in a fight like that. He had treated some trolls that managed to escape or were abandoned, and he knew what horrors were brought to those trolls. At least he would take proper care of her and treat her kind, but firm. Just like with his other patients, of course...he did favor this one more than the others.

To help calm himself down, he looked up on sites about grubs and babies that helped him a bit, he already knew most of the things grubs would do. But in his excitement, most of it was forgotten. He needed to make sure that he knew what he was doing before he actually brought her in. The sites were helpful, giving tips that he wouldn't have even thought of himself.

He stayed up through the night and made her room perfect. He had a spare one anyway, so he could afford to give it to her. He made a bunch of shelves for her to climb on and to perch herself and watch the world go by. The window in the room was cleaned and was given a child lock so she couldn't open it without him. The mattress had to be taken out and given to his storage room that he rented out a while ago. Her new bed consisted of a pile of pillows and sheets for now until she could actually use a bed in later years. He made sure to add a white cat he found on Amazon after the encounter he had heard about. Equius knew that she could be very fond of cats in her life, so why not start now?

He had left her room paint blank white so that way later on in life she could pick a color she liked and they would paint it together. A fresh new start with her seemed to be a good idea. He smiled and closed the door. Her room was still in progress, but Equius hoped that it would be okay for her to settle in now.


End file.
